Window wonderment amazes young, old alike
If, like the popular holiday song says, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go," then you must be going to the corner of Seward and Third Streets. Even Santa Claus stopped to peer inside on Gallery Walk Friday night to catch a glimpse of the newest creation by REACH facilities director Dan Elstad.

Photo: Making a safe landing
An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-400 aircraft featuring the "Spirit of Alaska Statehood" design won in a Paint The Plane state-wide contest by Sitka High School's Hannah Hamberg was unveiled in 2009 taxis into the Juneau airport. The design celebrated Alaska's 50 years of statehood and featured a musher and sled dog, state ferry, Native Alaskan canoe, bear and whale, and the statement, "We're all pulling together."

Photo: Admiring sculptures
Bop Isbell, with his life mask in the foreground, attended an unveiling of a sculpture Saturday in Mountain View in Anchorage. Artists Erin Pollock and Steph Kese revealed their backlit mask sculpture, which features life masks of 52 Mountain View residents. The subjects were in attendance at the unveiling and a party afterwards at the Mountain View Boys and Girls Club.

Photo: Playing the favorites
Members of the Floyd Dryden String Band entertain holiday revelers during Friday evening's Gallery Walk to kick off the Christmas season.

Police & Fire
This report contains information provided to the Empire from law enforcement agencies. This report includes arrest and citation information, not conviction information. Anyone listed in this report is presumed innocent.

Disclosure without a cause
All the hoopla about whether WikiLeaks has harmed U.S. foreign policy has missed the most stunning lesson of this drama.

The judge shortage
A vacancy crisis threatens our federal judiciary. With 108 open trial and appellate court positions across the country - nearly twice the number that existed when President Barack Obama took office - our federal courts are suffering from a near-record 12 percent vacancy rate.

Young Americans: In the crosshairs of debt
President Obama's debt commission has earned mixed reviews for its recommendations for reducing the federal government's ballooning deficits. But at least it got the right conversation started.

Hoonah teacher wins prestigious national award
Benjamin McLuckie, a teacher at Hoonah High School, has been named one of seven national winners of the 2011 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Foundation Educator Achievement Awards.

Leadership Juneau seeks applications
Leadership Juneau 2011 is about to begin and the United Way of Southeast Alaska is recruiting. The program offers local citizens the chance to become more effective community leaders.

Columbus awards seek middle school applicants
The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, a federal agency, is calling for entries for the 2010-2011 Christopher Columbus Awards program. The awards challenge teams of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students to explore opportunities for positive change in their communities.

Midnight Suns take third place in Hawaii
The Midnight Suns baseball team from Juneau recently competed at the En Fuego Invitational Tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii and returned as third-place finishers after a successful trip.

Juneau sends six wrestlers to state
The Juneau-Douglas and Thunder Mountain wrestling teams returned from Craig with six state qualifiers for this weekend's tournament in Wasilla.

Falcons freshman Demmert expected to contribute
Thunder Mountain freshman shooting guard Michaela Demmert has played basketball since the fourth grade. Demmert was born in Juneau but moved with her family to Ashland, Ore., when she was in the first grade, where she lived for four years before returning back to Juneau. She said she sees herself being a contributing factor on this year's Falcons squad, even as a freshman. And although she wasn't a part of last year's team, she said they should be considerably improved this season.

Parnell, Treadwell sworn in
The new administration of Gov. Sean Parnell and Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell pledged to move forward with an agenda of strengthening the state's families and economy as it was sworn in Monday at an inauguration ceremony at Juneau's Centennial Hall.

AP Interview: Parnell feels freedom to chart course
JUNEAU - Monday's inauguration marks a coming out of sorts for Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell, who spent his first 15 months in office in his predecessor's shadow but now feels the freedom to chart his own course. And he plans to seize the opportunity.

Agency OKs bonds for Mat-Su prison sewer project
ANCHORAGE - A state loan agency agreed to a complex deal Friday to sell up to $20 million in bonds to finance the troubled private sewer project at the new Mat-Su prison in the Goose Bay area.

Miller faces deadline to respond to borough
JUNEAU - A former employer of Republican Joe Miller is threatening to take its concerns about missing e-mails to investigators or the state bar association if Miller doesn't respond to questions surrounding the matter.

Rough seas for ship being towed in Bering Sea
ANCHORAGE - A cargo ship that broke down in Alaska's Aleutian Islands while carrying canola seeds and nearly a half-million gallons of fuel oil continued its slow journey to a safe harbor Sunday as a tug boat pulled it through rough seas and up to 25-foot waves.

$25M school boosts pride in Kongiganak
ANCHORAGE - Building Alaska's newest Bush school meant pounding steel pilings 60 feet into the tundra, installing special devices to keep the permafrost frozen, and building a frozen airstrip on a lake.

Pebble Mine trial over permits begins
ANCHORAGE - A lawyer for companies seeking to mine in southwest Alaska used a core sample, large maps and photos to show Monday that exploration of the area had been carefully conducted with high regard for the environment.

Ex-ADF&G spokeswoman to spend 3 days in prison for reckless driving
Former Alaska Department of Fish & Game spokeswoman Jennifer Yuhas will spend three days in prison after she pleaded guilty Monday to reckless driving, a misdemeanor, for a March 28, 2009 Juneau incident in which Yuhas operated a vehicle without her headlights on and failed to stop at several stop lights.